More Signs the Pulse is Getting Weaker at Times OC

Usually when you click on the "O.C." tab on the online version of the Los Angeles Times' California/Local page, you'll come to another page with a fairly meaty Orange County-related headline and story link across the top. But as of 2 p.m. today, that prime position for readers seeking Orange County news was dedicated to "California Briefing: Reports from Lake Elsinore, Los Angeles, Santa Ana and Vista."

The 178-word Santa Ana news brief was on the arrest of three Orange County men in separate sex crimes the day before--the same item that was posted on the O.C. Watch blog--which is really just a category of the L.A. Now blog--at 1:15 p.m. Thursday by the Times OC's Tony Barboza. As of 2 p.m. today, it was also the most recent post on O.C. Watch, whose motto is "Daily coverage of news in Orange County."

To be fair, directly under California Briefing on the O.C. page was a photo and link to a story on Kobe Bryant's solo Lakers parade at Disneyland Thursday and, next to that, a similar teaser for the Iranian street protest in Irvine Wednesday. So, technically, there has been at least one piece of daily coverage of news in Orange County somewhere on the page. And it's only 2 p.m.: surely something will happen before the day ends to warrant a Friday item. Somewhere.

Matt Coker has been engaging, enraging and entertaining readers of newspapers, magazines and websites for decades. He spent the first 13 years of his career in journalism at daily newspapers before "graduating" to OC Weekly in 1995 as the paper's first calendar editor. He has contributed as a freelance editor and writer to several publications and been the subject of or featured in several reports online, in print and on the radio and television. One of countless times he returned to his Costa Mesa, CA, home with a bounty of awards from a journalism competition, his wife told him to take out the trash.